


Took The Stars From My Eyes

by Nevanna



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: F/F, F/M, Gen, Grief/Mourning, Jealousy, Pre-Series
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-11
Updated: 2015-07-11
Packaged: 2018-04-08 17:54:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 791
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4314753
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nevanna/pseuds/Nevanna
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Pearl thinks that she can face eternity on Earth if Rose Quartz is with her, but when Rose chooses another way, she has to do the same.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Took The Stars From My Eyes

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this story to fill the "rejection" square for Hurt/Comfort Bingo. The title is from "Cosmic Love" by Florence and the Machine.
> 
> This story is dedicated to [valravnsown](http://archiveofourown.org/users/valravnsown/pseuds/valravnsown). Happy birthday!

Pearl lies back on the sand and gazes at the night sky overhead. There are many things about the human world that she will never comprehend, but their fascination with the stars and planets is not one of them. That, she understands perfectly.

“Are you trying to locate the stars that we’ve visited?” Rose Quartz asks with a laugh.

“I’m still not used to looking at them from this angle,” Pearl admits as she sits up. “I guess I’ll have plenty of time to practice.”

“Oh, Pearl. I’m…”

“Rose, you don’t need to say anything. Turning our backs on our home planet was the right thing to do.” Pearl sighs. “Even if we had to turn our backs on so many other worlds along with it.”

Rose’s embrace is firm, and her hair and voice are soft, and for now, Pearl lets herself believe that eternity on this planet might not be so bad.

\--

When Greg Universe shows up at the Gems’ temple to collect Rose for the evening, he kisses her hand – which looks as if it’s about the same height as his lips – and Pearl tries to tell herself that they look ridiculous. She can hear Rose’s laughter as they descend the steps, all the way down to the beach.

“Don’t make that face, Pearl,” Amethyst says. She’s cradling a tray of food in her arms. “She’ll come back. She always does.” She spreads a generous amount of jam on what looks like a turkey sandwich, and takes a big, noisy bite.

Pearl winces. “Could you _please_ not do that?”

“Hey, I’m a growing girl,” Amethyst says with her mouth full. “Or, at least, that’s what they say on TV. And then a bunch of invisible people laugh, but they do that even when nothing’s funny.”

“How can she even think for one minute that they have a future together?” Pearl bursts out. “What if monsters or enemy soldiers attack Beach City while they’re eating _ice cream_ somewhere? Doesn’t she even realize that she’s going to outlive him? I think someone should remind them –"

“You,” Garnet says from the doorway, “will do nothing of the sort. You’ve always trusted Rose Quartz, haven’t you?”

“Of course I have,” Pearl snaps.

“Then you should trust that she knows what she’s doing. Whether their relationship lasts for a few days or a human lifetime, that makes it no less _theirs_.”

The next day, before they step onto the warp pad for a mission, Pearl asks Rose, “Are you and Greg happy?” His name still sounds strange in her mouth.

Rose’s eyes sparkle. “You have no idea.”

“I think I’m starting to,” Pearl says flatly, checking to make sure that her sword is strapped securely to her back, and that she’ll be able to easily reach it.

“Can you be happy for me?”

There’s very little that Pearl won’t do for Rose, and so she is able to promise, “I can try.”

\--

The night after Rose leaves them for the last time, Amethyst curls up in her favorite chair and asks, “Why did she do it?”

“Because she couldn’t exist in the same physical reality as…” Pearl begins. It wouldn’t be helpful to say, _She wanted something that she could never have, and she wanted it more than she wanted to be one of us_. The facts are as cold and clear as the night sky that they used to share.

Amethyst rolls her eyes. “I know that, Pearl. I’m not stupid. I just don’t understand why she _decided_ to do it.”

Pearl strokes Amethyst's hair. “Neither do I.”

Later, Pearl finds herself in the cloud temple with her sword drawn, running through every secret move that she used to protect Rose from their enemies, and every technique that they practiced together. Hours pass, or maybe years, and she can almost lose herself.

It wasn’t an enemy that defeated them, that took Rose away, in the end.

_She decided._

\--

Greg and Rose’s young son is an energetic bundle of loud laughter and constant questions: he always wants to know _why_ and _how_ and _what if_. Pearl knows how fast humans grow, and she’s well aware that before too long, Steven will have questions that she’ll be able to answer better than his father can.

Greg takes the boy wading in the low tide, and Steven shrieks as the water splashes around his ankles. Pearl watches them from the dunes, and she sees the pink stone in Steven’s round belly catch the light. Maybe his mother is truly gone, and maybe she isn’t, but Pearl will do what she can for what’s left of Rose, when he’s ready.

When she makes that promise, she starts to think that Rose hasn’t rejected her after all.


End file.
